TuesdayMarch 20,2018

One thousand three hundred school bags for children in stricken areas

Yuia Nagata (at the back), her brother Yuki Nagata and the school bags presented for the children in the areas stricken by Great East Japan Earthquake and Afghanistan. Itoman City, May 5.

May 18, 2011 Ryukyu Shimpo

Students of Kouyou Elementary School in Itoman City have been calling for people to donate school bags to give to children living in areas stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake and in war-torn Afghanistan. They have collected a total of 1300 bags.
Impressed by the activities of the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning, a tax-exempt, non-governmental organization, 13 year-old Yuia Nagata, a first year student at Nishizaki Junior High School, came up with the idea when she was still at elementary school.
At first, the idea was to support children in Afghanistan, but then, after the terrible events of March 11, the focus evolved to include children in the areas stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

So far, about 500 school bags were sent to Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture at the beginning of April and 30 to Afghanistan on May 5. School bags will also be sent to Iwate Prefecture, and if earthquake victims taking refuge in Okinawa request them, Nagata will send the bags to them as well.

Nagata said, “I am pleased to know that so may people are thinking about children in the areas stricken by the earthquake, and in Afghanistan. I hope that they put the school bags to good use there.”